Advocates for books that matter.

Wendy Strothman

Wendy Strothman has long been an advocate for authors and freedom of expression. Before starting the Strothman Agency, Wendy was the Publisher of Trade & Reference books at Houghton Mifflin (now Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) and the Publisher at Beacon Press.

At Houghton Mifflin, Wendy acquired and edited books by key authors, including Philip Roth, John Kenneth Galbraith, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Paul Theroux, and James Carroll. She also vigorously pursued the defense in the lawsuit brought by the Margaret Mitchell estate to block publication of Alice Randall’s The Wind Done Gone, a parody of Gone with the Wind.

Wendy’s efforts to publish books at the highest standards led the company to receive more literary awards than at any time in its history--two Pulitzer Prizes, one National Book Award, three Caldecott Medals, and two Newbery Medals, among many other honors- and led to the company’s greatest period of growth and recognition.

From 1983 to 1995, Wendy headed Beacon Press, a Boston publisher founded in 1854. She published two New York Times bestsellers (Cornel West’s Race Matters and Marian Wright Edelman’s The Measure of Our Success) and one National Book Award winner.

Wendy began her career in 1972 at the University of Chicago Press where she launched the Critical Edition of the Works of Giuseppe Verdi.

Agent Member of the Association of Authors' Representatives.

Awards and Recognition: Publisher of the Year Award (New England Booksellers Association); Person of the Year Award for “permanent and significant contributions to the book industry” (Literary Market Place); “Friend to Writers” Award (PEN New England-never before given to a publisher); and two Doctor of Humane Letters (one from Brown University, and one from Meadville Lombard Theological School, affiliated with the University of Chicago).

Boards: Wendy currently serves on the board the Copyright Clearance Center and the Board of the Association of Authors Representatives where she is also a member of the Contracts Committee. Wendy has served on the Board of Governors of Yale University Press, as a Trustee at Deerfield Academy and 826 Boston, and as a Trustee and Senior Fellow of the Brown University Corporation where she was Secretary of the Corporation for ten years.

Wendy has also consulted for a number of small publishers and non-profits on publishing business strategy and has served as a publishing experts in legal matters.

Looking for: Books that matter, books that change the way we think about things we take for granted, that tell stories that readers can’t forget, and advance scholarship and knowledge. History, narrative nonfiction, narrative journalism, science and nature, and current affairs.

Photo by Nancy Crampton, used with permission.

Lauren MacLeod

Lauren MacLeod joined the Strothman Agency after graduating cum laude from Emerson College with a BFA in Writing, Literature, and Publishing. She lives in Nashville, TN, and tweets under @Lauren_MacLeod.

Lauren’s primary interests are young adult fiction and nonfiction, middle-grade novels, as well as highly polished literary fiction and narrative nonfiction.

Looking for: Young adult & middle grade in every subgenre. She loves books for and about lost people, and well-drawn, complex, flawed characters. She is particularly searching for #ownvoices (#ownvoice queries that use the hashtag in the subject line of their email will be prioritized) and inclusive, diverse narratives as well as multifaceted female characters or feminist themes, and QUILTBAG representation.

Fiction can shape the way people view the world and make us more empathetic. To that end, she is searching for books with themes that speak to the current political environment. She is especially interested in YA books that deal with immigration, income inequality, racism, abortion, authoritarian governments, climate change, and civil rights.

On the adult nonfiction side, Lauren looks for all captivating narrative nonfiction and is particularly interested in food writing, science, pop culture, and history. Her dream nonfiction project would be a feminist history of the United States.

Lauren is not accepting queries for adult novels, picture books, or chapter books for early readers at this time. She does not represent adult romance, adult SFF, or adult mysteries and thrillers.